Shillingbury Tales was a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 sitcom comedy-drama series made by ATV

Associated TeleVision

Associated Television, often referred to as ATV, was a British television company, holder of various licences to broadcast on the ITV network from 24 September 1955 until 00:34 on 1 January 1982...

 for ITV

ITV

ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...

 and broadcast 1980-81.

Comprising a single feature length pilot and six one-hour episodes, the series deals with life in an idealised fictional English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 village and stars Robin Nedwell

Robin Nedwell

Robin Nedwell was an English actor. He is best remembered for his role as Duncan Waring in the television comedy series Doctor in the House and its sequels...

, Diane Keen

Diane Keen

Diane Keen is an English actress.Keen is possibly best known for her starring roles in the British TV drama Doctors which she has been in since 2003 , and in the 1970s comedy series The Cuckoo Waltz and Rings on Their Fingers.-Personal life:Keen has one daughter, actress Melissa Greenwood, from...

, Nigel Lambert

Nigel Lambert

Nigel Lambert is best known for his role as the narrator of the first series of the BBC comedy series Look Around You.He is the voice of Mr Curry in The Adventures of Paddington Bear television series and also "Papa" in the Dolmio pasta sauce puppet commercials.He also contributed extensively to...

, Jack Douglas

Jack Douglas

Jack Douglas may refer to:* Jack Douglas , British actor and comedian* Jack Douglas , American record producer* Jack Douglas , American comedy writer...

, John Le Mesurier

John Le Mesurier

John Le Mesurier was a BAFTA Award-winning English actor. He is most famous for his role as Sergeant Arthur Wilson in the popular 1970s BBC comedy Dad's Army.-Career:...

, Bernard Cribbins

Bernard Cribbins

Bernard Cribbins, OBE is an English character actor, voice-over artist and musical comedian with a career spanning over half a century who came to prominence in films in the 1960s, has been in work consistently since his professional debut in the mid 1950s, and as of 2010 is still an active...

 and Trevor Howard

Trevor Howard

Trevor Howard , born Trevor Wallace Howard-Smith, was an English film, stage and television actor.-Early life:...

.

It was preceded by a feature length

Feature length

Feature length is motion picture terminology referring to the length of a feature film. According to the rules of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, a feature length motion picture must have a running time of more than 40 minutes to be eligible for an Academy Award.The term may also...

 pilot episode The Shillingbury Blowers starring Trevor Howard

Trevor Howard

Trevor Howard , born Trevor Wallace Howard-Smith, was an English film, stage and television actor.-Early life:...

, broadcast 6 January 1980

The series was written by Francis Essex

Francis Essex

Francis Essex was a British Television and stage Producer, Author and Composer. Essex's career spanned several decades during which he worked for several TV Production Companies, including: Light Entertainment Producer for the BBC Channel in the UK from 1954 to 1960; Senior Producer for the ATV ...

 and directed by Val Guest

Val Guest

Val Guest was a British film director, best known for his science-fiction films for Hammer Film Productions in the 1950s, but who also enjoyed a long, varied and active career in the film industry from the early 1930s up until the early 1980s.-Early life and career:He was born Valmond Maurice...

. Unusually for a British situation-comedy at that time it was recorded entirely on location on 16mm film and consequently there was no laughter track. Much of the filming took place in the village of Aldbury

Aldbury

Aldbury is a village and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England, near the borders of Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire, in a valley close to Ashridge Park. The nearest town is Tring; Tring railway station, 1 mile west, is in the parish of Aldbury...

 in Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...

.

The show ended when ATV lost their licence to broadcast and their replacement Central

Central Independent Television

Central Independent Television, more commonly known as Central is the Independent Television contractor for the Midlands, created following the restructuring of ATV and commencing broadcast on 1 January 1982. The station is owned and operated by ITV plc, under the licensee of ITV Broadcasting...

 declined to continue production of the series.

Series 1

• The Shillingbury Tinker (17 May 81)
• The Shillingbury Melon (24 May 81)
• The Shillingbury Cloudburst (31 May 81)
• The Shillingbury Legend (7 Jun 81)
• The Shillingbury Miracle (14 Jun 81)
• The Shillingbury Daydream (21 Jun 81)

Cuffy

In 1983, A spin-off sequel series entitled Cuffy

Cuffy (TV series)

Cuffy was a British sitcom from 1983. It spawned off from the 1980-81 ATV comedy-drama Shillingbury Tales, and both series were created by Francis Essex...

 was made and broadcast by ATV's successor Central

Central Independent Television

Central Independent Television, more commonly known as Central is the Independent Television contractor for the Midlands, created following the restructuring of ATV and commencing broadcast on 1 January 1982. The station is owned and operated by ITV plc, under the licensee of ITV Broadcasting...

. The show this time focused on and around Bernard Cribbins

Bernard Cribbins

Bernard Cribbins, OBE is an English character actor, voice-over artist and musical comedian with a career spanning over half a century who came to prominence in films in the 1960s, has been in work consistently since his professional debut in the mid 1950s, and as of 2010 is still an active...

's character Cuffy.

However the spin-off series didn't feature Robin Nedwell or Diane Keen as they had left to focus on other work in their own ways at the time.